About Zheng De charms

15 septembre 2009

I have some Zheng De tong bao because emperor Wu Zong's mother is a Zhang lady and a family tradition told we're issued from this family. Today, I found this in http://primaltrek.com/coinlegend.html

Another example would be the zheng de (正德) reign title of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD) emperor Wu Zong. Zheng de (正德) means "correct virtue". The inscription zheng de tong bao (正德通宝), meaning "currency of correct virtue", became a very popular inscription on Chinese charms even though no actual coins with this inscription were ever cast by the government! Please see the examples below.

Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)

The inscription (legend) of this charm is zheng de tong bao (正德通宝).

Zheng De was the reign title (1505 - 1521 AD) of the Ming Dynasty emperor Wu Zong. While some claim that the government did cast a very small number of coins with this inscription, it is generally believed that no coins meant for circulation were ever cast by the government using the reign title zheng de.

Even though no legal tender coins were cast during this period, a fairly large number of charms with this inscription exist. The reason is that zheng de has the auspicious meaning in Chinese of "correct virtue", so the inscription translates as "currency of correct virtue".

Ancient Chinese folklore says that zheng de was a "swimming" dragon. The belief is that wearing a zheng de charm when you cross a river or sea would protect you from the danger of large waves.

Also, the Chinese love to gamble and there is an old Chinese superstition that says carrying a zheng de charm will bring you good luck at gambling.

It is a common theme with zheng de charms to have a dragon and phoenix.

The reverse side of this charm shows a wide-eyed dragon on the right with its head at the five o'clock position. A lovely phoenix is on the left of the square hole with its head at the six o'clock position.

The dragon and phoenix paired together represent the ultimate union of a man and a woman. Additional information on this subject can be found at Chinese Marriage Charms.

The charm has a diameter of 45 mm and weighs 14.5 grams.

This is another example of a very well-made zheng de tong bao (正德通宝) that would typically have been used as a marriage charm.

The reverse side of the charm displays a very ornate and finely detailed dragon on the right with its head at the two o'clock position.

An equally detailed phoenix is at the left of the center hole with its head at the eight o'clock position.

This is a large and heavy charm.

The diameter is 54 mm and the weight is 42.3 grams.

This is another example of a charm with the Chinese coin inscription zheng de tong bao.

The very broad outer rim displays two dragons, one on the right and one on the left.

The circular objects at the 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock positions are pearls.

The reverse side also has a very broad outer rim with the single Chinese character wen (文) above the square hole.

Wen (文) is the measure word used for counting Chinese cash coins.

It is interesting that this same character wen (文) can also mean the obverse side of a coin even though here it is displayed on the reverse side.

The diameter of this charm is 31.3 mm and the weight is 8.3 grams.